This 2nd edition will bring together researchers from different institutions, mainly academics and representatives of indigenous peoples worldwide: the Sami of Norway, Kanak of New Caledonia, Aborigines of Australia, Amerindians of Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, and Canada, as well as different communities of Senegal.

The conferences, courses and workshops will address the comparative status of these communities who, each in their own way, fit along the abiding history of struggle against the threats of ethnocide. The center focus here will be to analyze and discuss experience based on three lines of approach:

– law: social institutions on a legal point of view

– culture: cultural representation (language and art)

– religion: spiritual representation (religion, cults, rites).

All these subjects will be approached in multidisciplinarity. The announced intention of the organizer, Stéphane Pessina Dassonville, senior lecturer à the University of Rouen, is to « create the conditions of a genuine dialogue with the representatives of these communities » and « develop exchanges between the countries of the two hemispheres; these exchanges do exist, yet they remain too rare ».

The summer campus is based on a People’s University philosophy: it is open to all those who might wish to discover or reach further into these issues, especially undergraduate, graduate and PhD students as well as researchers. Participants will need to pay a fee but the event is free for listeners-in.

In practical terms:

– courses will be held on (June) Monday 27 and Tuesday 28, and then on Monday 4 through to Friday 8 (July).

– scenario workshops (role plays based around negotiation over legal text on indigenous rights, and possibly leading to a pleading contest) will be held from Wednesday June 29 to Friday July 1.

Three conferences will be presented each day, including 45 minutes of presentation and 45 minutes of discussion.

Reaching for more informal contact, especially between indigenous and non-indigenous participants, the schedule includes social and cultural activities to take place on evenings and weekends.

To know more

June 27- July 8, 2011

University of Rouen, Faculty of Law

3, Avenue Pasteur

Amphithéâtre 600

76000 Rouen

France

Information and subscription : Sofie Pesqueux Dorozey – Tél. (+33) 02 32 76 97 82
Program and organisation : Stéphane Pessina Dassonville